Monday, July 30, 2012

Burrowing Owls: Grasslands, Pasture and Imprinted

The easiest way to get a photo of a Burrowing Owl in Saskatchewan is to visit the Burrowing Owl Interpretive Centre in Moose Jaw.

But, depending on background and timing, the resulting image (as shown at left) may not seem realistic...

For example, I adore Potter — last year's newborn and newly imprinted Burrowing Owl — but the photograph of him standing on a sheet-covered chair, with a bird poster behind, does not look at all like a Burrowing Owl in the wild!

But pictures in natural settings are so much more challenging. Burrowing Owls are only about eight or ten inches tall, so they can easily hide in grasses or simply be too far away for a camera to capture. They are also most visible when nesting, but that is a critical time when they should not be disturbed.

Back to photography... As examples of shooting a tame, imprinted Burrowing Owl, zoom in on the details of Potter, above.

And then try the same, with these totally wild Burrowing Owls in their natural prairie settings, first at Grasslands National Park and then on a privately-owned pasture southeast of Regina.

I spent close to an hour chatting with the owner of the pasture, who'd offered to point out the burrow location after I told him I'd seen the owls on nearby fence posts and these stalks of dock. (And yes, he has officially reported this nesting site and is now receiving support — aka, frozen white mice — to feed the Burrowing Owls... I stayed far out by the road for the pictures, but he drives right up to the burrow near the dock to drop off their extra food. They're never visible when he wheels by, but he says the food he leaves for them quickly disappears.)

The owls in GNP also receive similar dead/frozen/rodent sustenance to help broods of this endangered species survive. (I was surprised by how few nests there were in the park... Perhaps 12? This truly is a precious threatened bird.)

You might also like

Prairie creatures and scenes

Welcome to Prairie Nature, a collection of photographs of prairie birds, animals/wildlife, insects and scenery, primarily from Saskatchewan, Canada.

I hope you'll enjoy these, and — if you're here trying looking for a specific bird — I hope the images and links will help you identify it.

Many of these photos were taken in and around the Regina, SK, area. Other pictures were taken in the prairie grasslands in the southwest of the province, near the Montana border. (If you're interested in using any of these images in any way, please contact me.)

Search Prairie Nature

Shelley's Other Blogs

Contact Shelley Banks

Name

Email
*

Message
*

Banner photo

The image of the elk on the hillside in this blog banner was taken in the Qu'Appelle Valley, somewhere east of Buffalo Pound Provincial Park and west of the city of Regina, in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada.